Grumman F3F

The Grumman F3F was a single-seat biplane fighter built for the United States Navy in the mid-1930s as an improved F2F, and the last biplane fighter delivered to any American military air arm. The Navy's experience with the F2F revealed stability and spin recovery problems, which led to an October 1934 contract for the improved XF3F-1. It entered service in 1936, inherited the Grumman-designed retractable main landing gear first used on the FF, and became the basis for a biplane design that grew into the F4F Wildcat. It left front line squadrons at the end of 1941 and was replaced by the Brewster F2A Buffalo.